A New Kind of Troublesome
by NarutoRomantic
Summary: ShikaTema, Shikadai/OC. Nara men have a tendency to fall in love with troublesome women, and Shikadai is no exception. One-Shot, Complete.


At ten-years-old, Nara Shikadai had come to the conclusion that women were unnecessarily troublesome and best to be avoided if at all possible. The one exception to that rule being his mother, of course. Even if he wanted to hide from his mother, he knew his efforts would be futile.

Of course, he realized that this situation, too, could have been avoided if he'd left fifteen minutes earlier for the Academy. But he'd overslept (as per usual), argued with his mother (again, as usual), and forgotten his lunch (which had been a first, at least for this term) - so he'd opted for the shortcut that would take him right past _her_.

They were in the same Academy class, but Shikadai had never paid her much mind. She tended to be quiet, and she kept to herself, so he'd assumed she was shy.

Oh, how horribly wrong he'd been.

Still about twenty minutes from the Academy, he saw her. Sitting in the mulch on the playground, she seemed to be entertaining herself with watching the passerby. She had two white blonde ponytails, held in place by identical blue ribbons - he recognized them as the ones he'd bought her after she'd defeated him in shogi. They were made of an expensive, high quality silk and had cost him almost three month's allowance. He told her it was a bribe, so she wouldn't blab about it, but -

Blue eyes met teal, and his sometimes-adversary broke out into a brilliant grin. Rising to her feet, she jogged over to him. The slight movement was enough to reveal the various bruises and scrapes that lined the exposed bits of her body, the rainbow of colors standing out against her ivory skin. When she reached him, she punched his shoulder a little too hard and spun a handsome tale of how she'd fight him for his lunch. He never had to ask what he'd get if he won. He already knew he'd lose.

His mother would kill him if she knew he was just throwing in the towel and letting a girl walk all over him just because he didn't want to hurt her. That he could see, quite clearly, that she'd been hurt enough already. That not everyone was kind enough to spare a meal for a starving orphan whose only fault was trusting too much.

He'd make a show of fighting her, if only to preserve both their pride. She didn't need to know he'd been packing extra lunch every day, just in case.

He refused to just let her starve.

After everything is said and done, Rina took her bounty and Shikadai brushed dirt off his pants. She'd actually landed a pretty nasty blow at the end, and he rubbed his chest where the bruise was sure to form... Not even waiting, Rina hurriedly tore into the carefully packaged food and, ignoring the chopsticks, took huge handfuls of rice and fish and stuffed them into her mouth. Shikadai grimaced - he definitely could've lived without seeing that.

"What do you like to eat?" He asked suddenly, not even fully aware of what it was he was asking until the words hung awkwardly between them.

Blue eyes widened slightly. This wasn't how this was supposed to go - she was supposed to kick his ass, take his food, and make a mildly threatening promise to see him at the same time tomorrow. They weren't supposed to _talk_. "W-What?"

But Shikadai was quick to cover his tracks, "I mean, if you're gonna take my lunch every day, it might as well be something you like to eat." It was a perfectly reasonable argument, but somehow it seemed to mean so much more.

"I guess that makes sense." She said softly, after considering for a minute. She was just a schoolyard bully, she wasn't really in any kind of position to make demands -

"Well?" He pressed. They didn't have much time until they were both late for classes, and neither wanted to incur the wrath of Aburame-sensei.

Thinking for a minute, Rina finally whispered, "I'd like to try a lollipop." And then, with more conviction, nodded to herself - "Yeah, I've never had one before. I'd like to have a cherry lollipop. The rest of the food doesn't matter - I'll eat anything."

Shikadai tried not to think about how skinny the girl was, about just how desperate she was for food. She could've asked for anything in the world, anything at all, and all she'd wanted was a _lollipop_. Troublesome girl. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed the cherry lollipop he'd snagged from ChouChou the other night when she and Inojin had slept over. He tossed it to Rina, who caught it with relative ease.

When she saw what it was, her eyes widened, "Why are you -?"

"Didn't you just say that you wanted a cherry lollipop?" After a beat, she nodded. "To the winner go the spoils. Eat up."

Rina swallowed hard, tears wetting her pure blue eyes, "T-Thank you."

Shikadai smiled, "You're welcome."

Yes, women were troublesome creatures. They were overly dramatic, complicated beings that even Shikadai failed to comprehend. But there was something about Rina that made her... different. He just hadn't figured it out yet.

But he did know one thing for sure: he'd be back tomorrow with more cherry lollipops.


End file.
